Jeff Malet Photography

LOC National Book Festival (2015)

Book lovers of all ages rubbed shoulders with 175 prominent authors, poets and illustrators at the 15th Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday Sept. 5, 2015 in Washington D.C. David McCullough, Jane Smiley, Al Roker, Tom Brokaw, E.O. Wilson, Kate DiCamillo and Buzz Aldrin were among the featured speakers. The year also marked the 200th anniversary of the Library’s acquisition of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library and the festival used a quote from Jefferson himself “I cannot live without books", as its theme. For the second year in a row, the Festival took place indoors at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, away from its former home on the National Mall and its newly installed watering system.

Joseph Ellis
Joseph Ellis, a professor teaching in the Leadership Studies program at Williams College, is a nationally recognized historian whose work focuses on the founders of the United States. The author of nine books, he has received the National Book Award in Nonfiction for "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" (Vintage) and the Pulitzer Prize for "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation." His most recent book is "The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789” (Knopf). Ellis has appeared in several documentaries on early America, and his essays and book reviews have appeared in national publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker.